My car has a .030 over 350 with 69 cc #16 heads, cast pistons. I run it on 93 octane pump gas with an occasional (~every third tank of gas) bottle of cheap octane booster. It rarely pings under any circumstances. It runs at 160 to 180 degrees with a 160 degree thermostat. The only thing I've deliberately done to deal with detonation is using the coolest plugs that are appropriate for my engine.

Pontiac said the 350 HO had 10:1 compression. Classical Pontiac's compression calculator says my setup is 9.4:1. I think Pontiac overstated compression ratios.